Chapter 304 Chapter 304 Behemoth
After the farce was over, everyone realized that the gentle receptionist was actually a tough character. They tacitly slowed down their voices and their attitudes became much better.
That's how people are.
Although they themselves may be working in or have worked in a service industry, some people still look down on service personnel at work.
This kind of contempt is subtle, but it will be reflected in the details, and it is most serious among some middle-aged people.
For example, when they learned that the hotel receptionist kindly provided them with free drinking water:
Young people say, "Sister, can you give me a glass of water?"; old people say, "Little girl, please give me a cup of hot water, thank you." However, some middle-aged people take it for granted and just say, "Hey, give me a glass of water."
There was no overt arrogance, but the tone was one that brooked no refusal, without a trace of respect, as if the hotel front desk staff inherently owed these non-hotel guests a glass of water, and then continued to press their limits.
An example is a family of three arguing over going to the toilet.
The first floor is full of restaurants and the mall provides free public toilets in Areas A, B, and C. If you need to take care of your menstrual needs, you can go to the building on your own.
It just so happened that this family needed water and paper all the time. In the end, they complained that the public toilet downstairs was used by so many people and smelled bad, and felt it was inconvenient, so they asked the girl at the front desk to open a room for their baby son for free to use the toilet.
The reason is that no one lives there anyway.
The girl at the front desk naturally would not agree to such an unreasonable and outrageous request.
If there is one, there will be two, and if there are two, there will be three.
This family needs to go to the toilet, and that family needs to go to bed because it is uncomfortable to stand. Moreover, if someone breaks or steals something in the room, and there is also the cleaning fee paid by the cleaning lady, who will compensate for these losses?
Do we have to rely on a group of people who will only continue to push their moral limits?
In the end, it was all her fault.
Xiang Jingyao, who was triumphant, picked up the fruit knife, wiped it like a treasure, and put it in a place where only he could pick it up.
If the tiger doesn't show its power, people will think it's a sick cat.
He is used to bullying thin-skinned young girls. He has no AC sense and comes to her to seek a sense of existence.
If she hadn't been concerned about the large number of people and the fact that she was on duty, she would have cursed that family for eighteen generations.
…
Several more hours passed
The fierce tsunami flood has already submerged two or three floors and there is still no sign of it stopping, and the free drinking water provided by the hotel has been drunk up.
The refugees became increasingly restless and irritable.
However, the girl at the front desk just used a trick to scare the monkeys by killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, and called the cleaning lady and several logistics staff to help, so the rest of the people did not dare to act rashly.
If you want to make trouble, you have to weigh the knife first.
Even if someone is injured, he will be sent to the police station, but there is no medicine or doctor at this moment, and the probability of death from being stabbed is 99%.
Who dares to take this risk?
It’s not like I’m really tired of living and I think my life is too long.
Besides, anyone who knows a little about the law knows that if you cause trouble first and the other person uses a knife because he is forced into a corner, it would be ridiculous for the judge to sentence him to death.
Others go to jail, behave well and get reduced sentences, and live happily ever after, but I am really out of luck. Even if I didn't die, with the almost nonexistent medical conditions nowadays, I am bound to have sequelae.
Why bother?
It’s not like I’m really short of that little money.
Many people understood this point. Seeing that the flood and tsunami had not receded for a long time, many people booked rooms for a few days while their phones still had power.
Judging from the room prices, this hotel is not cheap. The special price for a double room is 329, which is two or three days' salary for many people.
But considering its geographical location, such as being located in a popular seaside resort city with convenient transportation, a large shopping mall downstairs, being close to the coast, high-rise housing, and being able to enjoy the sea and night views at any time, etc., the price of 329 can even be considered a discount.
And although the hotel only allows two people to stay in one room, if you secretly check in with more people, as long as you don't do it openly in front of others, the staff will turn a blind eye.
If a few people get together and each contribute fifty or sixty, wouldn't the price be brought down?
There are always more solutions than problems.
So after a while, most of the hotel's double and twin rooms were booked, and the number of people crowding in the aisles and halls was reduced by half.
Those who are reluctant to spend money to book a room have access to a more spacious public space, where they can move freely and feel much more relaxed.
This wave is a win-win situation.
However, not all floors can maintain stability and harmony.
As a comprehensive commercial building integrating food, drink, entertainment and recreation, it receives tens of thousands of customers every day.
Moreover, today happens to be the first day of a three-day holiday. The number of tourists in Hai City has exploded, and countless people have come to the building to take refuge.
When there are more people, there are more things to do.
The tsunami and flooding were nerve-wracking, and then there was a power outage in the building, shutting down the central air conditioning. The carbon dioxide people exhaled couldn't be expelled, while the summer heat kept pouring in.
With people feeling impatient and irritable, a dispute is about to break out.
Poor security personnel in the building, running up and down, left and right, and also preventing some bad people from taking the opportunity to steal expensive items in the shops.
When it gets dark, people's stomachs start to protest, and a new round of disputes begins.
The reason is simple.
The food sold in commercial buildings like this is relatively expensive, except for the snacks on the B1 and B2 floors. It is normal for a simple glass of lemonade to cost twenty yuan.
But for the tourists who were forced to take refuge in the building, twenty yuan a cup of lemonade is just robbery, which is more profitable than robbing a bank.
Unfortunately, the mall doesn’t even have the usual small shops you’d see on the street, so it’s wishful thinking to just buy a bottle of water or a piece of bread.
When I'm hungry I can only eat expensive food from the mall.
As a result, it is difficult for most people who are forced to spend money on expensive food or have to go hungry because of the price of food to maintain a normal mentality, and they will inevitably feel more resentful when facing restaurant staff.
Little did they know that these staff members were also innocent and wronged.
They are just wage earners, earning a fixed salary of a few thousand yuan a month. How can they have the right to decide the prices of food in the restaurant?
If they dare to charge customers a penny less, they will have to make up the loss themselves. Why should workers make things difficult for workers? If they want to make a fuss, they can go find the manager or the boss.
But not everyone can understand this.
A group of people surrounded the equally miserable staff and made a big fuss. One moment they said that they were black-hearted and had bad intentions for profiting from the national crisis, the next moment they kept saying that they were selfish and would be struck by lightning, and they even cursed their parents, wives and children.
Who wouldn’t be angry after hearing such words?
It only took five minutes for the verbal abuse to develop into a physical altercation and finally to knife attacks.
The young man who hurt the man had red eyes and seemed unwilling to give up. He held the fruit knife tightly in his hand, ready to attack at any time. The injured man sat on the ground, covering his arm in pain and wailing.
Blood dripped all over the ground.
The man's relatives gathered around him, not daring to argue with the young man with a knife. They cried and begged for help from the onlookers, wanting to call the police and dial 120.
But where can the police and ambulance come?
The onlookers could only sigh with regret and remember in their hearts this terrible lesson that was a lose-lose situation.
I'm afraid this person is finished.
I told you not to argue, don’t argue. If you think it’s too expensive, just buy less, or just be patient.
The tsunami has stopped and rescue will surely arrive soon, but you refuse to listen and rely on the money you spent to make things difficult for others. You are neither forgiving with your hands nor with your words.
Now, my life is about to end.
What's the use of crying.
In the end, the security personnel hurriedly brought out the first aid kit to bandage the man and barely stopped the bleeding.
"It's okay, it's okay."
"He's fine, just a hand injury. The compensation won't be much, so don't overthink it."
"They picked the first thing. We have surveillance cameras in our store, which can be used even when the power is out. There are so many witnesses around. The court will not favor anyone."
At this time, the man's family finally learned their lesson. They did not jump out to provoke the other party when others were comforting the young boy, saying that if he didn't pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, he would never have a good life in this life.
Otherwise, considering the young boy's red eyes, confused brain and highly nervous state, it would not be difficult to send the whole family down in one piece.
With the patient persuasion of the restaurant chef and the response of the onlookers, the young boy's brain gradually regained its sanity, his anger dissipated, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
"I... killed someone?"
"You didn't kill anyone, the person is still alive!"
The slightly bloated chef slowly walked forward and took the fruit knife from the young boy's hand. Seeing this, everyone finally relaxed.
Without a sharp weapon to hurt people, even if the young boy suddenly attacks others later, he will not be able to cause much damage.
After the news of this mutually detrimental incident spread upstairs and downstairs, the emotional refugees and store staff tacitly stopped arguing and began to feel fortunate that the situation had not escalated to an irreversible point.
The building returned to calm.
However, the rescue team, which was regarded as the only hope by everyone, encountered considerable difficulties when entering Hai City.
Although the tsunami stopped, the flood in the city took a long time to recede. The water was turbid and fast-flowing, and was mixed with large and small debris, which greatly affected the rescue operation.
Fortunately, this tsunami did not bring about a more terrible earthquake, or the submarine earthquake that caused the tsunami did not affect the mainland.
More and more official or civilian rescue teams arrived, and orange speedboats, a symbol of hope, poured into the muddy waterway, carrying boatloads of disaster-stricken people back to land.
However, considering the number of residents in a first-tier city, this amount of relief is just a drop in the bucket.
The next morning
The calm sea surface began to ripple again, and the waves were even higher and more violent than the day before, and the flood in the city began to rise steadily.
Third floor, fourth floor...
The power of nature is so terrifying, and humans who claim to be at the top of the food chain are as small as mayflies.
People in low places had to move to higher places, and their mood became increasingly worse as they watched the rolling waves and floods.
How much longer can they hold out?
People in the building are also thinking about this problem.
Not eating for one day is bearable; not eating for two days is okay, it will be uncomfortable but you won’t starve to death; but not eating for three, four or five days is a bit fatal.
It's deadly in both the physical and physiological sense.
Throughout history, there has never been a dynasty that fell because the people at the bottom couldn't afford to eat. Starving people would even eat their own children, not to mention the little tricks they resorted to to survive.
Several managers realized this and did not ignore it anymore. Instead, they immediately found the person in charge of each restaurant and asked them to donate some food to the refugees in the building.
No one dared to refuse now.
Firstly, the manager in charge has great power and is capable of taking responsibility and blame, and he has a security team under him to follow his actions.
Secondly, restaurant managers were also worried that starving refugees would loot and destroy their establishments, which would be more trouble than good. It would be better to provide some food to maintain stability and gain a good reputation.
Even the hotel where He Junxia was staying received a notice asking them to pay for food, and the quantity was specified.
However, the amount of food the hotel was required to pay was not much, and the rice stored in the kitchen was enough to meet the demand.
And because the building manager said that free porridge and water would be distributed to refugees on several floors at noon, all the people crowded in the hotel lobby and corridors left.
Fewer people, less arguments = safety
Several hotel staff members were finally able to take a breath. The girl at the front desk slumped down and no longer had to pay attention to the knife in the cabinet all the time.
"Finally left."
"Let's make instant noodles. Xiaowen has boiled water in the kitchen. I'm starving."
"Let's go, let's go."
"Wait a minute, I'll take the knife with me so no one can steal it."
The staff who had not eaten all morning hurried to the kitchen to eat, as they were also very hungry.
Looking at the empty hotel lobby and the crowded 15th, 18th and 20th floors, Tian Qingwen felt fortunate again.
Fortunately, Jiang Zhiyang was smart and bought some instant noodles and bread in advance, otherwise the two of them would have to go downstairs and squeeze in with the crowd.
But her heart still couldn't be happy.
"Let's finish this quickly."
“I wonder how long the food in the building can last?”
Tian Qingwen rubbed his face vigorously, not caring about maintaining his image in front of his former blind date.
She was already numb.
As long as she cannot leave the dangerous area, the sword of Damocles will never leave her head.
It’s so bad!!!
Seeing this, He Junxia didn't say anything to comfort her. It would be useless to say anything, so it was better to let her vent.
People are fragile but also strong. As long as they have water and food, it is not difficult to survive for a while.
If the building couldn't hold out until the rescue team showed up, he would have Yao Ling come back and take them both away. Hopefully, things wouldn't have to get to that point—there were still so many people in the building, and if it collapsed, the consequences would be disastrous.
But He Junxia always felt that things would not be so simple.
After all, this is an A-level mission world.
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